


gaps of sunlight

by Ethereally



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Budding Love, Developing Relationship, F/M, FE Rarepair Week 2019, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 07:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20849750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethereally/pseuds/Ethereally
Summary: i don't think i could stand to bewhere you don't see mefelix is gone, and annette reflects.





	gaps of sunlight

with the dawn of the wyvern moon comes fall, when the trees shed their leaves and the little animals begin to tuck food away for winter. the students at garreg mach behave differently, too; annette notices how there's less running in the hallways, how there are more duos or trios huddled close to one another as couples begin to form. felix would be proud of her for noticing. annette isn't the most perceptive person, but you have to pick up some observation skills if you want to teach. all the better to catch students trying to copy off each other during certification exams, right?

she can't help but feel a pang of jealousy with every couple she notices in peacetime. 

'cuffing for the winter', sylvain had called it, while they were students themselves-- it was just human nature, he'd explained, to want a partner for the colder months to tide them by. but was it really so simple? she remembered the soft smile on felix's face whenever their eyes met in class, or on the training grounds when he asked her to teach him basic spells. annette hadn't wanted to be presumptuous, but a part of her had secretly hoped that felix saved those smiles for her. he didn't seem like the type to pursue romance just because he was lonely, and after her initial misgivings her heart would flutter when he approached her alone in the greenhouse. especially when he asked her to sing.

(just for him.)

secrets were meant to be kept, but annette had never been particularly good at holding hers close to her chest. mercie began to nudge and wink at annette after she noticed felix and annette dancing at the ball, and she'd tease annette about him in letters even after garreg mach fell apart: had he visited? (yes.) were they writing? (sometimes, but his letters were awfully short in comparison to hers.) was she going to speak to him about her crush any time soon? (absolutely not, mercie!) 

fall turned to winter and then spring, summer and fall once more, and the seasons of fódlan were rinse, wash, repeat as war raged through the continent. five cycles later and annette found herself back at garreg mach. this time, not as a student, but as a hardened soldier in a war her countrymen hadn't asked for. felix was there, too. he wasn't any taller, unlike that traitor ashe, but there was a stride with which he held himself that she didn't recognize from his brief visit. he'd approached her after their battle at dawn, not wasting any words before saying, "your hair looks nice down."

and then, "you haven't grown any taller either."

oh, she was going to fight him. 

still, she couldn't help but find it endearing how she seemed to be the only person who could push felix around; she'd heard so many warnings about boys like him who kept their feelings hidden behind a wall of sharp words and cruelty, but a part of her just liked that felix made her feel special. and one day, when she'd had enough of wondering, she burst into sylvain's room without any warning, yelling and shaking and demanding answers, asking if felix had said anything about her to him or ingrid-- to which sylvain had begun cackling hysterically, collapsing onto his bed, asking annette coyly why she didn't just confront felix about this herself. sylvain was lucky she didn't slap him. 

felix had been a lot more subdued when annette marched up to him and ingrid sparring on the training grounds. ingrid whispered "go get em'" when annette dragged felix away, and he'd blushed; annette wasn't sure if she'd seen him do that before, but then again, she'd never thought to notice. 

annette had been surprised at how quickly their relationship had developed after that. felix was an exceedingly private person, but annette always felt a flush of glee when they stole kisses between lessons, or when their fingers brushed against each other's under the table during meals. and when felix quietly admitted to her that he'd never tried anything physical before-- too busy training, too busy fighting, and a tiny part of him was nervous about his partner not liking what they saw underneath the layers-- she'd been more than happy to lace her hand into his, pressing her nose against felix's as she whispered "i'm your girl" into his lips. 

she recalls them training together, her watching as his thunder spells ripped through the dirt of the training grounds, carried by her verdant wind; sparring together, felix goading annette to go harder on him, because he's no longer a novice at magic the way he was when they first met; and the way she'd patch up his wounds after a long fight, running her fingers across his scars. memories marred by time and reality, and the knowledge of what would come next.

it's nearly impossible now, for annette to look at the fading colors and the leaves on the ground without imagining felix as he'd looked on that awful day in enbarr. she sees him lying in the soil, hair matted with dirt, blood seeping into the earth as the battle rages around them. and she always has to fight the urge to bend over, and do what she did for felix that day: placing her shawl around his neck so they can be together in the next life, closing his eyes so he can finally have peace. annette takes a deep breath, jolting herself out of the memory.

they promised they'd be teachers at garreg mach together when the war was over. annette blinks back tears, trying to force a smile-- felix would be happy for her if he knew she made it out of the war somewhat whole and alive. better that one of them keeps their word, and better that she tries to move on, right? that's what he would have wanted: for her to stop dwelling on the dead.

winter comes after fall, and then blossoms into spring. someday, annette will find renewal and rebirth.

**Author's Note:**

> my friend grace did a lovely cover of [francis forever by mitski](https://drive.google.com/open?id=17kMwqBd3yGjQxTU7iB-hz1QiRG28NMvA) and it sent me into a writing frenzy. before i knew it i already had half of this written out and it wasn't even 8 am. what the fuck. 
> 
> thank you to nil and shannon for helping me beta this!!
> 
> also can we please start calling this ship netteflix bc it's the name it deserves


End file.
